While We Sleep in Doorways

While We Sleep in Doorways

Do world leaders care?

or just play king while we sleep in the streets?

They sit in rooms behind the glass

with flags, with pens, with polished brass

they smile for war, they dine on peace

but when do all the gamesmen cease

They walk the stage in practiced lines

with eyes that weigh the dollar signs

they say it’s duty, call it fate

then pass the cost to those they hate

We queue for bread, we count the lights

they build more walls, they plan more flights

and every speech repeats the same,

your sacrifice, our nation’s name

Do they weep when cities burn

or just file notes and wait their turn

do they taste the smoke, the blood, the toll

or just the power that makes them whole

I’ve watched them trade our voices cheap

then sleep like kings, while mothers weep

don’t talk of honour, not to me

I’ve seen the truth on live TV

They claim to rule, to serve, to try

but not one bends when poor men die

so tell me now—what do they feel?

A hunger fed by every deal

They call it noble, call it just

but speak from towers built on dust

and I, one voice, not trained nor schooled

can see they’re only here to rule

They count their millions while we sleep in doorways

sell us the lie of some brighter day

we know the truth, their words run cheap

and if they could, they’d put us poor to sleep.

They take from poor give it to rich,

Leaders rule us all, and life’s a bitch.